"Rich kid," said the youth with the papers. "Only jews
live in the 16th." Then the aggressors became 'violent and
sadistic.' They ripped her t–shirt and jeans, and
held a blade to her cheek, and cut off a hank of hair, 'for
a souvenir.' With a black marker they drew swastikas on
Marie's bare stomach.

Marie's horror lasted 13 eternal minutes as the train
passed the stations – Les Noues, Goussainville and
Villier–le–Bel. At Garges–Sarcelles they
pushed over the pousette, and left the train, taking
Marie's back–pack. Luckily, the baby wasn't
injured.

No passengers leaped forward to defend Marie, nobody
pulled the alarm signal. Marie was unable to say how many
other passengers had been riding in the same wagon. She
guessed 20. The wagons have a capacity of 160, and the
entire RER train can carry 1600 passengers. Even if there
had been 20 passengers in the wagon, they might not have
been close enough to witness the drama.

Shaken, Marie continued her journey to Gare du Nord and
then switched to the Métro to ride out to
Aubervilliers. It was here in the afternoon that Marie went
to the police to press charges. She was examined by a
doctor and declared unfit to work for 10 days.

Alerted by Pontoise, the Police Judiciaire of Versailles
joined their colleagues at Cergy, to conduct the
investigation. They weren't able to get a statement from
Marie until Saturday afternoon. After listening for hours,
they suggested that she avoid staying at home for security
reasons. On Sunday night the Pontoise police asked for
witnesses to step forward.

The investigators recuperated the tapes from the video
cameras posted at the RER stations. They spoke to two
passengers. Units of gendarmes, CRS, national police and
railway cops spread out along the RER line looking for
clues and additional witnesses.

Due to not being interrogated by police until Saturday
afternoon the story was missed by the day's papers, but
covered by TV–news Saturday evening.

Shortly after the story hit news agency wires, Minister
of the Interior Dominique de Villepin condemned the
'ignoble' act, and minutes later Jacques Chirac said he was
appalled.

By chance, Jacques Chirac had made a speech at
Chambon–sur–Lignon on Thursday. This town in
the Haute–Loire was being honored for receiving
thousands of Jewish children during WWII
and hiding them in the Haut–Lignon region from the
Nazis. The president saluted the 'France fraternelle' in
front of the villagers, accompanied by Simone Veil, Jacques
Barrot, and Jérôme Monod – who had been
one of the enfants.

Before the fireworks – like
it is every night.

So it was that the outrage against antisemitism broke
like a flood and reached heights seldom seen here by
Sunday, which is the day that politicians are seen and
heard by the media. Politicians of every stripe condemned
the attack.

Last Monday Le Parisien gave some of its front page to
the story, and all of its pages two, three and four. It
listed no less than seven 'grave précédents'
this year alone. On Monday the Communist Party led an
pro–Jewish demonstration in Belleville. One banner
read, 'Juifs et Arabes Pour la Justice.' The Elysée
Palace let it be known that the 14. July presidential
amnesty would not apply for racial crimes.

But by late Monday it was becoming apparent to the horde
of investigators that there were problems with Marie's
story. The police said the identities of witnesses would be
kept confidential, but none came forward. The couple that
Marie said aided her were equally unfindable. The
half–dozen SNCF agents on the scene at the time, saw
nothing.

Initial viewing of the videos from the stations revealed
no images of any band of six youths, or of Marie. One
investigator recalled that the swastikas drawn on Marie's
tummy were backwards. One witness was found who said he saw
Marie at Louvres with her pants already ripped. Her
portable phone was checked, and was found to have been used
for a call from Louvres station at the same time as Marie
was being attacked on the train. The police began to
doubt.

They discovered in their records that Marie had laid
charges no less than five other times in the past, for
attempted rape, aggression, violence – five
complaints closed by police after follow–ups to
nowhere.

By Wednesday Le Parisien's front page main headline was,
"Mensonge(s)" Curiously, the photo just below the large
type showed the movie 'Spiderman' attacking a commuter
train.

Marie lied, the paper says. Held for interrogation,
Marie spilled all the beans. The whole story was total
fiction. School friends told the paper her nickname was
'Mytho.'

The first reaction to this was an answer to the question
of why politicians had reacted so quickly, so
unconditionly. Antisemitic acts this year are said to have
increased four times over 2003. 'Foul' cried leaders of the
Muslim community, with reason. The Prime Minister said the
affair was a 'real emotion resulting from an event, real or
virtual.'

By Thursday Marie had retreated to the Siberia of Le
Parisien's page 11. She and her boyfriend were detained for
a while on Wednesday and on Thursday authorities in
Pontoise were trying to decide what to do. Marie's mother
had been interviewed on radio RTL, saying that if her
daughter was to be judged, she should be treated too.

The embarrassment was embarrassing. Were the president
and other notables too swift with their condemnations?
Since the perceived abandonment of the aged during the heat
wave last summer, all politicians have attempted to seem
more alert to the concerns of the French.

Finally, on Thursday night's TV–news and on Friday
morning's Le Parisien front page, we saw the photos of
Marie outside the Hôtel de Police at Cergy. She has
been charged with making 'charges of fake crimes.' She
risks six months in jail and a fine of 7500€, but was
set free to await a hearing later this month.

Most likely, if Marie seeks psychiatric help, the court
will be lenient. This is what her mother hopes, and what is
most likely to happen because Marie has confessed all of
her 'crimes' to the police.

Marie is an attractive, well–dressed young lady
with a young baby. Judging from all the times they have
been mentioned, I suspect she has made enough confessions
to last her a lifetime. To these she has added her excuses,
made publically to the newspapers and on
television.

Trip of the Lip?

Yesterday, speaking in Israel to representatives of
American jewish organizations, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
said that immigration to Israel was the sole response to
'an unfettered antisemitism that is spreading in France.'
He added that he thought French Jews would be wise to 'move
immediately.'

'Ten percent of the population of France consists of
Muslims, supplying fertilizer for a new form of
antisemitism,' the Israeli leader contended.

The French reaction was swift. 'Unacceptable' said the
foreign minister, Michel Barnier, who asked French
representatives to contact Israeli authorities quickly for
'explanations.'

Théo Klein, honorary president of the council
representing French jewish institutions, said he thought
Sharon should let French jews handle their own problems.
Patrick Gaubert, president of the International League
Against Racism and Antisemitism, judged that, 'Mr. Sharon
would do better to shut up, because his proposals do not
bring the calm, peace or serenity we all need.'

'Very badly informed,' considered Patrick Klugman,
vice–president of SOS Racisme, 'about what's going on
in France. Very badly informed about the reality of the
Jews of France who are above all happy to be able to live
here, happy with a government that protects them.'

It is difficult the evaluate the effect of antisemitism
in France on emigration to Israel. According to the Jewish
Agency, in 2003 there were 2 313 French emigres, and 2566
in 2002, but these were 2.5 times more compared to
2000/2001. In all, 70,000 French Jews have moved to Israel
since 1948. This is hardly an exodus.

It is thought that France's jewish population numbers
about 600,000. After Israel and the United States, it is
the world's
third largest Jewish community. Some French observers think
that the Jewish Agency seeks to motivate French Jews to
emigrate because of falling immigration from Russia and
Argentina.

Display of new Marianne stamp on the
Assembly National.

The 'invitation' has been made before, most notably on
6. January 2002, when the vice–minister of Israeli
foreign affairs, Michael Melchior, stated that 'France was
the worst country in the world when it comes to
antisemitism.'

According the French interior ministry there have been
135 antisemitic acts since the beginning of the year,
compared to 127 in 2003 and 192 in 2002.

The weekend marked the sad memorial of the 'Roundup of
the Vélodrôme d'Hiver' – 'Rafle du Vel'
d'Hiv' – in July 1942, when 12,884 Jews in the Paris
region were rounded up and arrested by Vichy's police. Many
were interned, but 8000 were sent to Drancy and then on
one–way trips to death camps in eastern Europe.